Annapurna Circuit stay safe · Annapurna Circuit travel safety advice
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Annapurna Circuit travel safety advice
Annapurna Circuit travel safety advice
For health, please read up extensively on Altitude Sickness and have some diamox on you just in case (this can be bought in pharmacies in Nepal). In summary from Wikipedia; the drug forces the kidneys to excrete bicarbonate in the urine, therefore making the blood more acidic. Acidifying the blood stimulates breathing, which increases the amount of oxygen in the blood.
Note that diamox is not an immediate fix for acute mountain sickness; it speeds up part of the acclimatization process which in turn helps to relieve symptoms. This may take up to a day or two, and requires waiting without any further rapid ascent. It is often advisable to descend if even mild acute mountain sickness is experienced. If serious sickness is encountered or symptoms of HAPE or HACE occur, descent with another trekker is A MUST.
Please consult the pharmacist when purchasing regarding Diamox use and do your own research, there is also a free talk in Manang given on Altitude Sickness every day during season which is great for knowledge before doing the pass. One thing that is often overlooked is that your body requires large amounts of water at altitude to counteract sickness, therefore keep a bottle on you at all times! The Round Annapurna Trekking Profile also has a good summary of symptoms on one of the pages.
Also pick up some antibiotics for stomach infections while at the pharmacy, getting a script for bacterial and a script for amoebic infections is recommended. Luckily pharmaceuticals are so cheap in Nepal!
For drinking water, please do not drink the water from the tap on the trek due to foreigners being unable to handle the local bacteria and amoeba. The main two options for trekkers is to use the Safe Drinking Water Stations along the trek for a fee or bring your own water purifiers. KTM and Pokhara sell chlorine, with a small blue bottle made in Nepal (name unknown) being the best and only costing 50-70Rs. There is also tablets from India which people will tell you is Iodine and is better but is actually also chlorine but goes for 300Rs per bottle. For the trip, 2 bottles of Nepal-made chlorine will get you through the trek and surprisingly doesn't taste too bad.
Please do not buy bottled water on the trek as there is no rubbish disposal systems on the trek. This will also keep your costs down as the pricing can get crazy.
For safety, at all trekking times INCLUDING side treks carry a head torch, water, some food and a mobile phone with helicopter evac number (on Trekking Profile) in case of emergencies. People do get lost and have died on this trek, especially if feeling the effects of altitude sickness. On all side treks make sure you trek with other people as the path and facilities are not up to the same level as the main circuit.
Treks in the popular trails of Nepal are usually safe, but it is always advisable to trek with at least one friend with Local guide & porter. Some trails are known for encounters with desperate bandits although this is fairly rare.
Learn about altitude sickness before you set out on this trek. Also see your doctor before leaving home to make sure you have all the proper vaccinations, and that you bring with you all of the medications you will need. (Antibiotics and altitude medicine are good things to have.)
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Annapurna Circuit Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.